It is NOT, repeat NOT the Kitty Norville books which are surprisingly good and I recommend to any fan of Jim Butcher (she’s not ripping him off*) but they’ve got a similar fun grittiness.
It’s from, at very earliest, the late, late '90s but more likely 2002-> and probably even more recent. It’s from a real publisher, it’s not a self-published thing. I vaguely recall it’s it’s own series that’s part of a bigger universe (the Death or Guards books in the Discworld series, for example) but don’t quote me on that.
The “gimmick” is that there are no female werewolves because…the plot demands it, so…pretzel logic reasons. Except one. Our female protagonist is the ONE SINGLE Werechick to ever survive being turned into a werechick. She lives in a sort of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers type situation. She’s only boinked by the Alpha Male of the pack, but good lord, she gets boinked often, regardless of plot demands. The other non-alphas are all happy for the king werewolf but jealous. The sex part is like the later Laurel Hamilton stuff where the story was a loose framework in which to insert the boinking–and it’s spectacularly unsexy (in the Werechick’s case as well as Hamilton’s).
Anyway, I’m trying to find the title because it’s bugging me that I don’t remember it–I’m not intending to reread it. Really–it’s terrible (and I think there are like…three+ of them. Bleh)
I’m glad you remembered the title, because as I was reading the OP I was thinking “I’m pretty sure I’ve read that book…it had a one-word title…the author was Canadian…” but couldn’t recall what the title actually was or the author’s name.
Wikipedia has a fairly detailed summary and list of characters that should jog Fenris’s memory if this is the book he was thinking of, and I’d bet that it is. FWIW I thought it was pretty bad too, although I don’t remember there being all that much sex in it.
Thank you. Now I can be sure to never read them again. Blech.
I just read the newest Kitty Norville book (“Low Midnight”) and something in it jogged my memory of “Bitten”. Which is weird because Kitty barely appears in the new one.
Now that THAT problem is solved, any other good…um. Uh–non artsy-fartsy Charles DeLint type urban fantasy? Think about a scale like this:
Jim Butcher…Protagonists are grown-ups who kick ass and take names
Whatshername–Kitty Norville…Magic is big fireworks special effects stuff, not this wispy super-subtle stuff
The “Iron Druid” guy…Protagonists have real problems, real antagonists.
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Charles DeLint (who’s fine in small doses)…Protagonists are waif-like children or man-child types (grown up but emotionally about 12
Diana Paxton…Magic may or may not be real, but if it is, it’s so damned subtle it’s hard to tell.
…Most of the stories are about getting over emotional boo-boos which the naughty antagonist exploits.
(in theory there’s supposed to be two columns–I’m not linking each author/book with the line across from it. But vB doesn’t have a table function, dammit!)
That’s way, WAY oversimplified and again, DeLint is great in small doses, but I want more kick-ass urban fantasy. Sex is fine, as long as it’s a normal part of the novel and not the thing you lightly drape the plot around.
So…any recommendations for Butcher-esque urban fantasy?
There was a Canadian TV series based on the premise (IMDB Page) which was also pretty awful with very little, but still confused, plot and a lot of gratuitous… everything. SyFy aired it last year.
I’m not sure if it’s what you’re looking for, but you might check Jim Hines’ Magic Ex Libris series: Libriomancer, Codex Born, and Unbound. Or Justin Gustainis’ Occult Crime Unit series: Hard Spell, Evil Dark, and Known Devil.
I’ve heard of the Ben Aaronovitch, but never had it recommended and did like the Alex Verus books, so I’ll be checking him out along with Seanan McGuire, Gustaninis and Hines.
Thanks for the recommendations! I’m really in the mood for this sort of book, so they’re very appreciated.
Well, only partly urban fantasy, but it goes way past the Jim Butcher end of the spectrum, and then some: Glen Duncan’s The Last Werewolf and its sequels. Werewolves in these books are nasty: for one night of the month, they turn into the worst cross between a human and a canine imaginable, interested primarily in killing people and then fucking. Fun reads, but gah.
There’s also the Matthew Swift series by Kate Griffin, with the semi-sequel series Magicals Anonymous. I also second Mike Carey, Ben Aaronovitch, Benedict Jacka, and Seanan McGuire. I’ll have to check out the names that’re new to me!
If you like Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville books, you might also check out her Golden Age books. There are currently two: After the Golden Age and Dreams of the Golden Age. The basic idea is that they’re set in a world where superheroes (instead of werewolves and vampires) are real.
Ben Aaronovich’s Rivers of London / Peter Grant series. PC Peter Grant discovers that the Metropolitan Police have a semi-secret department dealing with the supernatural.